Department Of Veterans Affairs Fast Facts

Facts: There are approximately 21.4 million veterans in the United States.

President Barack Obama has requested an appropriation of $163.9 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs in the 2015 Budget, a 6.5% increase over the 2014 Budget.

The 2015 Budget proposal includes $59.1 billion allocated for medical care, about 36% of the total. More than 58% of the budget goes towards mandatory benefits programs, including disability compensation and pensions.

1862 - During the Civil War, Congress passes a bill allowing the president to purchase land for national cemeteries. Between 1865 and 1870, 70 national cemeteries open for burial of Union soldiers.

1865 - At the end of the U.S Civil War, there are 1.9 million Union veterans. Congress authorizes the National Asylum of Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, a system of residences for disabled and indigent veterans.

1912 - Congress passes the Sherwood Act, guaranteeing pensions for Union veterans of the Civil War and veterans of the Mexican-American War, regardless of their health.

1924 - Congress passes the World War Adjustment Compensation Act, a system of bonuses for veterans of World War I. Any veteran entitled to more than $50 is given a certificate payable 20 years in the future and worth about $1,500.

July 21, 1930 - President Herbert Hoover signs an executive order consolidating the Veterans' Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions and the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers into the Veterans Administration. The VA has a budget of $786 million and serves 4.6 million veterans.

1931-1941 - The VA builds 27 new hospitals, bringing the total to 91.

1932 - During the Great Depression, thousands of World War I veterans march on Washington, DC, to demand payment of their bonuses. After the marchers are forcibly removed, the VA pays their transportation costs home. Congress authorizes early payment of the bonuses in 1936.

1933 - The VA establishes the Board of Veterans' Appeals.

June 22, 1944 - During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, also known as the "G.I. Bill of Rights," a package of education benefits, federally guaranteed loans, and unemployment compensation.

1945 - At the end of World War II, there are approximately 15 million veterans in the United States, and all 97 VA hospitals are filled to capacity. In response, the VA opens 54 new hospitals over the next five years.

1958 - Congress pardons Confederate service members and extends benefits to the one remaining survivor.

1973 - The VA takes over the administration of the National Cemetery System, with the exception of Arlington National Cemetery and the Soldier's Home National Cemetery.

1979 - Congress orders the VA to study the effects on veterans of the Agent Orange defoliant used in Vietnam.

1983 - The Agent Orange study is transferred to the Centers for Disease Control.

1988 - The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims is founded. It gives those who served in the military a chance to challenge individual decisions made by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

March 15, 1989 - President Reagan signs legislation elevating the Veterans Administration to Cabinet status, and renaming it the Department of Veterans Affairs.

1991 - President George H.W. Bush signs into law a bill compensating Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange and suffering from non-Hodgkins' lymphoma or soft tissue sarcoma .

March 1991 - The VA orders Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in North Chicago, to stop performing vascular and orthopedic surgeries after the deaths of more than 40 patients in 1989 and 1990. After a review of the cases, the VA accepts responsibility for the deaths of eight patients.

1996 - President Bill Clinton orders the VA to provide benefits to Vietnam Veterans who develop prostate cancer or peripheral neuropathy after a National Academy of Sciences suggests there is a link between those diseases and Agent Orange exposure.

2006 - Two teens steal a laptop computer and external hard drive containing the personal information of approximately 26 million veterans from the home of a VA data analyst. The laptop and hard drive are later recovered and FBI testing suggests that the data was never accessed. In 2009, the VA pays $20 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by veterans.

February 2009 - The VA notifies more than 6,000 patients who went to Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that they may have been exposed to infectious diseases at the clinic due to contaminated endoscopic equipment.

February 2009 - The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, notifies more than 1,200 people that they may have been treated with contaminated equipment.

March 2009 - The VA sends letters to more than 3,000 people who may have had colonoscopies at VA facilities in Miami, warning that they may have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV. According to hospital officials, a review of safety procedures found that tubing used in endoscope procedures was rinsed but not disinfected.

2010 - The VA notifies more than 1,800 veterans treated at the John Cochran VA hospital in St. Louis that they may have been exposed to infectious diseases during dental procedures.

July 2010 - The VA unveils new regulations making it easier for men and women who served in the armed forces to receive benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder. Under the new rules a veteran only needs to demonstrate that he or she served in a war and performed a job during which events could have happened that could cause the disorder.

November 2010 - The VA announces that it will cover disability compensation for an additional three diseases linked to Agent Orange exposure among Vietnam veterans. They are hairy cell leukemia, Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease.

2011 - Nine Ohio veterans test positive for hepatitis after routine dental work at a VA clinic in Dayton, Ohio. A dentist at the VA medical center there acknowledged not washing his hands or even changing gloves between patients for 18 years.

February 2011-November 2012 - An outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease at VA facilities in Pennsylvania kills at least six veterans.

November 2013 - A CNN investigation shows that veterans are dying because of long waits and delayed care at U.S. veterans hospitals. The VA has confirmed six deaths tied to delays at the Williams Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina.

April 2014 - Retired VA physician Dr. Sam Foote tells CNN that the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system maintained a secret list of patient appointments, designed to hide the fact that patients were waiting months to be seen. At least 40 patients died while waiting for appointments, according to Foote, though it is not clear they were all on secret lists.

May 9, 2014 - The scheduling scandal widens as a Cheyenne, Wyoming, VA employee is placed on administrative leave after an email surfaces in which the employee discusses "gaming the system a bit" to manipulate waiting times. The suspension comes a day after a scheduling clerk in San Antonio admitted to "cooking the books" to shorten apparent waiting times. Three days later, two employees in Durham, North Carolina, are placed on leave over similar allegations.

May 20, 2014 - The VA's Office of the Inspector General announces it is investigating 26 agency facilities for allegations of doctored waiting times.

May 28, 2014 - A preliminary report by the VA's inspector general indicates at least 1,700 veterans waiting to see a doctor were never scheduled for an appointment and were never placed on a wait list at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Phoenix.

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